School Board attorney, councilman push back against rival law firms

Cobb Cole, along with the firm Smith Hood Bigman, made a written pitch to the School Board earlier this month to represent the district for a flat fee.

ANDREW GANTSTAFF WRITER

A team effort by two local law firms to replace Ted Doran as the Volusia County School Board's attorney has drawn hints of a possible ethics complaint from Doran and concerns from another well-known attorney in Daytona Beach: Josh Wagner, the outspoken Volusia councilman who joined Doran's firm earlier this year. The talk of a Florida Bar complaint was familiar at one of those opposing firms — Cobb Cole, where one partner said an unhappy Wagner had approached two of the firm's attorneys expressing his displeasure with the attempt at taking Doran's contract. "We've been around now for over 85 years, and this is not the first time that somebody's tried to put political pressure on us," Cobb Cole's Tom Leek said Tuesday. "But you don't make it 85 years if you cave every time somebody puts pressure on you. Cobb Cole will not cow to political pressure from any person, regardless of what office they may hold." Wagner and Doran both declined to go into specifics on any potential ethics complaint. But Doran, reached during a break in a trial, read from a written statement he'd prepared on the issue. "I have been advised by The Florida Bar that I can respond in writing to an inquiry from the district about possible ethical violations relating to the unsolicited proposal for legal services," Doran said. "I am in Tampa defending the school district in a jury trial, and upon my return, will prepare a written memo on the topic." Leek said the two lawyers Wagner approached were the same ones who most often appear before the County Council. He said the encounters happened outside council chambers, and there was "no explicit suggestion" by Wagner that the issue might affect Wagner's vote on some other matter. Wagner told one of the Cobb Cole attorneys he talked to that "he held the firm in high regard and was uncertain that he would be able to continue to do so if the firm was going to get involved in bush league politics," Leek said. When the attorney insisted he wasn't involved in the School Board proposal, Leek said Wagner responded: " 'You're going to be involved in the ethics complaint.' " Wagner said Tuesday night in a phone interview that he didn't say that. In an email earlier in the day, Wagner wrote: "I did not reach out to them as an attorney or a councilman. I spoke with them as a friend with concerns about how a few of their partners at their firm were handling this situation. As a councilman, I evaluate all issues on the merits without bias or favor for or against anyone." Cobb Cole, along with the firm Smith Hood Bigman, made a written pitch to the School Board earlier this month to represent the district for a flat fee. While that fee hasn't been set, the firms contend it would be less than Doran charges on a per-hour basis. The new firms, led by attorneys Leek and state Rep. David Hood, would handle all of the district's legal services rather than outsourcing certain specialties. The School Board has taken no action on the request. Doran, who has been the School Board's attorney since 2002, has been paid about $4.2 million over the life of his contract — an average of $350,000 a year over 12 years. The contract goes up for review periodically, but it renews automatically and doesn't expire. The board would have to make a decision to terminate it. Leek argued the district has hired 17 outside lawyers during Doran's contract, eight of them from outside Volusia, and the two new firms would save on those costs. Hood, reached Tuesday in Tallahassee, said he wasn't aware of the talk of an ethics complaint and trusted Cobb Cole to handle it. Leek said he believed the complaint would center on The Florida Bar's rules on soliciting clients by mail — but that the firms complied with those rules. The rules prohibit lawyers from contacting a prospective client unless that client is a family member or current or former client. The School Board's attorney used to be Cobb Cole & Bell's C. Allen Watts, and Hood's firm handles some of the district's workers compensation cases to this day. "This is just fair competition for a good piece of work; that's it," Leek said. "We don't want to get dragged into the politics of it. This is a diversion from the merits of the proposal... That's really where the bid should be won — based on the merits, not on any kind of distractions that are put out there."